Pubdate: Wed, 01 Oct 2003
Source: Daily News, The (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2003, Independent Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.thedailynews.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1056

NEW ZEALAND CANNOT PRETEND THAT P SCOURGE WON'T HAPPEN

The methamphetamine derivative known as P is no recreational drug,
says The Daily News.

Those who have tried it a couple of times as a weekend diversion tell
of the almost overwhelming urge to buy another hit.

Many succumb. Just a handful of years after this drug first reached
New Zealand, horror stories are emerging about people who had
previously been alcohol and occasional drug users quickly becoming
addicted to P and wasting, stealing and begging their way through
hundreds of thousands of dollars in a frighteningly quick time.

They have lost wives and husbands, sons and daughters, businesses and
homes. They have turned on their friends and become psychotic,
unpredictable and dangerous.

Children prostitute themselves for it. Armed robberies are heading off
the charts in number and gratuitous violence - and murder.

Right now, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of metham-phetamine
addicts consumed by the primary aim every day of finding a way to pay
for their next P purchase.

It is highly unlikely they will achieve that legally.

For the few who manage to fight their way out of this hideous maze,
there is often lasting physical and mental damage, rendering them
capable of being little more than welfare recipients.

Babies conceived during P binges show disturbing and tragic signs of
brain damage. The very least the child will face is being raised among
adults of limited resources and aspirations, thus repeating the cycle.

Senior New Zealand police and their political masters have dragged
their feet in facing this scourge.

Overseas drug experts warned five years ago that it would become a
problem unless a firm grip were gained on smugglers and those who
convert popular $10 ephedrine and pseudoephedrine cold remedies into
$1000 drug sales. P (for pure), speed, crank, glass, burn, and all its
falsely cosy names has recently been upgraded to a Class A drug,
meaning life sentences for manufacturers and dealers, but it is
already the drug of choice among the criminal and lower socio-economic
class, the poor man's cocaine.

Schools that have dropped the pretence of not knowing have began
testing - not for academic achievement but for methamphetamine.

Women's refuges are having to teach their volunteer staff about how to
deal with users - both clients and their deranged partners.

One rural town has boldly declared the goal being a P-free zone,
meaning it is blighted now. This horror drug is upon the country, and
growing fast. Police ministers, so actively clamping down on the road
toll, are in danger of misplacing their limited resources in a quest
for the wrong type of speed.

If politicians stalled at the earlier warnings, there should be no
doubt now.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake